Aedan Helmer breaks down Sir Paul's most influential career moves

Paul McCartney - Ottawa show?

Paul McCartney is expected to play at Ottawa show as part of his upcoming tour. (QMI Agency file photo)

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

James McCartney was surrounded by rock royalty at a small gig after his famous father Paul and Ronnie Wood joined him on stage. The Beatles legend's only son played a preview show at the Ambassadors Theatre ahead of his upcoming U.S. tour, and had called in a favour from Rolling Stone Wood to play guitar during his set.But his dad couldn't resist getting involved at the gig - and surprised James by jumping onstage to play the piano during one of his songs.The Hey Jude hitmaker then rejoined the audience, which included his daughters, Stella and Mary, his wife, Nancy, and Beatles album cover artist Sir Peter Blake, while James finished the sold-out show. Danny Clifford/Hottwire.net/WENN.com

Danny Clifford/Hottwire.net/WENN

Sir Paul McCartney with wife Nancy Shevell and his daughter Beatrice out and about in Notting Hill in January of 2013. WENN.com

Beatles wax figures as young men including George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon. Wax figures of The Beatles were unveiled at Madame Tussauds days before Paul McCartney celebrated his 70th birthday on June 18, 2012. Michael Carpenter/ WENN.com

Mandatory Credit: Michael Carpenter/ WENN.com

George Harrison, Paul McCartney (sandels have been added), Ringo Starr, John Lennon.
Wax figures of The Beatles are unveiled at Madame Tussauds days before Paul McCartney celebrated his 70th birthday on June 18, 2012. Michael Carpenter/ WENN.com

Mandatory Credit: Michael Carpenter/ WENN.com

Paul McCartney joins Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on stage at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park in London, England July 14, 2012.

Mandatory Credit: NO CREDIT

This undated file photo shows the British musical group "The Beatles". Shown from top, clockwise, are Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison. No British pop music act has managed to excite the American public quite like the Beatles did in the 1960s and 1970s. File photo

Paul McCartney plays a guitar solo while performing the song "Magical Mystery Tour," on stage Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2005, at the Glendale Arena in Glendale, Ariz. McCartney, 63, was crossing the country as part of his "US Tour 2005" to promote his album "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

AP

A historical image of The Beatles.

A historical image of The Beatles.

A historical image of The Beatles.

A historical image of Paul McCartney with former wife Linda, who died of cancer.

A historical image of Paul McCartney with former wife Linda and two of the couple's children.

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No matter what name he goes by, there's no bigger name in the music biz, and certainly none that can rival Paul McCartney's pedigree.

There's no denying Ottawa has hit the big time with McCartney marking the first-ever concert in the Capital by a member of The Beatles (if you don't count the Pete Best Band playing at Barrymore's).

And what better way to christen the Canadian Tire Centre with its first rock concert Sunday, than with a concert for the ages delivered by one of rock's true living legends?

In keeping with that spirit, the Sun recounts five chapters in McCartney lore, beginning with the mother of all rock n' roll urban legends, the infamous "Paul is Dead" hoax first floated in a Beatles fanzine in 1969.

As the theory goes, the iconic Abbey Road album cover was the latest in a trail of clues, depicting a funeral procession led by white-clad priest John Lennon, dour-faced mourner Ringo Starr, and George Harrison in jeans as the gravedigger following Paul, the barefoot corpse, who is famously walking out of step with the others and holding a cigarette with his right hand -- the literal smoking gun -- even though every Beatlemaniac knows McCartney is left-handed.

"It was weird, because I did get people looking at me, like, is it him?" McCartney later acknowledged.

And while it may sound silly today, the "clues" are so plentiful that one has to wonder if the Beatles were having a bit of fun with their fans, though no member has acknowledged their part in any hoax.

Perhaps the secret will follow McCartney to his grave. Perhaps it already has...

Paul is Dead... Long live Faul.

The clues were compiled -- from the 28IF (he had lived) license plate to the "I Was" desk sign in Magical Mystery Tour, to the garbled "I buried Paul" in Strawberry Fields Forever -- and it was determined that the real McCartney "blew his mind out in a car" on Nov. 9, 1966. He was hastily replaced by a lookalike named William Shears Campbell, the same "Billy Shears" referenced in Sgt. Pepper's title track, who is now affectionately known as Faul (or, "fake Paul"). Fueling the initial rumour was the fact that the real Paul, in the midst of his departure from the Beatles, was living as a recluse in Scotland with wife Linda at the time.

Blackbird and Angela Davis

While Lennon was the Beatle most associated with the peace and love movement, McCartney's social conscience was revealed in less overt ways.

He was the first Beatle to speak out against the Vietnam War, and his Civil Rights stance was laid bare in Blackbird, a cleverly-disguised ode to Angela Davis: "All your life / You were only waiting for this moment to be free / Blackbird fly."

As McCartney revealed in a 2002 KCRW radio interview: "It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic."

MJ owns his rights

McCartney "drifted apart" from friend Michael Jackson after the King of Pop bought up the entire Beatles catalog for $47.5 million in 1985.

As McCartney recently revealed to David Letterman: "He was asking me about business advice, and one of the things I said to him was, 'Think about getting into music publishing.' And he looked at me, and I thought he was joking and he said, 'I'm going to get yours.'

But it turned out to be true. Somebody had to get it I suppose... So I did talk to him about it but he kind of blanked me on it."

Best drummer in the Beatles

While McCartney helped revolutionize the place for bass guitar in rock, his instrumental skills weren't limited to the famous Hofner "Beatle bass." After Ringo briefly left the group during the White Album sessions, Paul took over on the kit, and it's his drumming you hear on Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence and the later single The Ballad of John & Yoko. He could also cut a mean six-string, and it's Paul, not George, taking the guitar solo on Harrison's Taxman, as well as John's Good Morning, Good Morning and his own Another Girl. All three take dueling leads on The End.

Brian Wilson's brain

Nothing like a healthy rivalry between musical geniuses. Brian Wilson was so taken with Rubber Soul that he had the Beach Boys pray for an album that would be its rival, which came in the form of Pet Sounds. McCartney, in turn, used that album as motivation for Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. The rivalry wasn't always so healthy. After McCartney said Wilson's God Only Knows was "the greatest pop song ever written," the drug-addled, paranoid Wilson took that as an affront, a suggestion the Beach Boy was washed up and had already passed his prime.

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